The volume level of music played on the playa has long been an interesting issue for Black Rock City. Over the past several years it has been an increasing concern for many BRC citizens in regards to the number and size of sound systems on mutant vehicles. With sounds systems being large and mobile, it makes it very easy to effect the experience of many others, often this is good, sometimes it's not. Too many times over the last few years we have had too many issues come up. Artists have complained that the experience at their art installations have been infringed upon, many people who have intentionally camped in the quieter parts of the city have been woken up in the early morning hours by rogue mutant vehicles blasting music, and there have even been reports of hearing damage from people who were just sitting on the playa and trapped in crowds at burns when a vehicle drove by or parked and blasted it's sound system at extreme levels.

We have also seen an increase in the number of Mutant Vehicles with sound systems of a size and power that would normally be designed for a stadium or arena. While the volume of these types of systems can be more easily assessed and appropriately placed when they are stationary in a Theme Camp, when they are on Mutant Vehicles they can be taken anywhere on the playa and pointed in any direction, making a cone of sound that may be heard by literally tens of thousands of people at a time. This creates a situation where one person or group is essentially forcing their music choice onto many others who may not want to hear it, are trying to enjoy other music, sleep, etc.

Somewhat surprisingly, the DMV has never had it's own policy that specifically applies to Mutant Vehicles, despite the fact that these vehicles carry some of the biggest sound systems on the playa. This lack of guidance no doubt helps allow the problems described above to exist, and persist. To help address this community problem, the DMV has developed a basic sound policy to help MV owners use their sound to the best benefit of the community. There will also be additional questions regarding sound upon registration of Mutant Vehicles.

A few things to consider:

Bigger is not necessarily better. A well engineered and well tuned sound system can create a high quality experience for those nearby without blasting out thousands of others further down playa. Do really need a sound system big enough to reach miles across the playa when the crowd in front of your vehicle only goes out a few hundred feet?

Remember not to play your sound system at higher levels while riding on city streets after midnight, or in a manner that dominates all other sound as you pass.

Keep in mind that if we continue to have the level of complaints and issues that we have been having for the past few years, we may have to take greater steps to limit large sound on vehicles. Please consider your impact on the community and help us all keep sound on MVs a positive experience.

The vehicle owner (registrant) is responsible for all aspects of the vehicle, including the use of sound systems. Rogue DJs are not an excuse for your vehicle getting complaints.

The Policy

Mutant vehicle sound systems can be classified into three levels.

Level 1: Normal car stereo / average living room (under 90 db at 30 ft)
Level 2: Dance Club or Theatre (90db and up at under 100ft)
Level 3: Large Dance Club, Arena, Stadium (100db or more at 100ft or more

Note:

All db levels refer to maximum potential DBA.
The important thing here is the impact of the sound itself. The numbers (DB) are guidelines and the important thing is the impact your sound is having.
Vehicles with Level 1 systems may play anywhere playa, but must be mindful of your volume and surroundings, especially in quieter areas in the city or later at night.

Vehicles with Level 2 systems may only play at high volume on the open playa (not in or pointing right into the city streets) and must be mindful of where you are playing -- e.g. around art pieces, burns, etc. -- and turn it down when appropriate.

Vehicles with Level 3 systems may only play at high volume at 10:00 and 2:00 by the Large Scale Sound Camps, with speakers pointing out to the deep playa.

If you get more than two warnings about your sound system, you may lose your MV license and right to drive it for the rest of the event.

these roving sound systems have been running mostly unchecked and it is good to see that they will finally be able to be held as responsible and to be nudged toward community mindedness as any other theme camp might need to be when using Large Scale sound.

it is potentially more than rude.. large scale sound is potentially dangerous.

people should be able to choose to be near large scale sound.. as mentioned in the DMV write-up, sometimes you cannot choose.. it is no surprise to me that people have apparently claimed injuries from sound at burning man while being unable to escape it (such as at large burns when someone pulls up behind you and youre in a big crowd)

i was injured by sound in 2007 at a big music festival.. before it happened It all seemed OK to me.. I was fine..it didnt seem too loud.. then all of the sudden I wasnt fine.. my right ear suffered a rupture and it was not pleasant at all.. getting out of the crowd wasnt nearly as easy as youd imagine because everyone wants to push towards the front.. I felt I was at a reasonable distance.. easily over 100 feet from the source of sound..

After that my right ear is more sensitive to loud noise than my left..it took about 2 months to heal up and for the nearly constant pain to go away..

Sometimes it is hard to protect yourself at burning man when it comes to large scale sound.. It is one thing to plan to go to a big theme camp.. you know youre going, you can wear ear protection and enjoy it safely..

There are times when you cannot know how loud a roving sound vehicle will be.. Many of these vehicles have highly directional sound.. It is often difficult to determine how loud it actually is until it is right on top of you and it may be too late at that point..

I know tons of people love this form of participation at the burn.. and in some circles of the music world there is an effort to promote hearing/ear safety..

..if measures like this protect even one person from injury it is well worth the potential loss of enjoyment that some participants may have..

(oh yeah, and it might stop people from being rude with their sound too.. thats cool!)

The volume level of music played on the playa has long been an interesting issue for Black Rock City. Over the past several years it has been an increasing concern for many BRC citizens in regards to the number and size of sound systems on mutant vehicles. With sounds systems being large and mobile, it makes it very easy to effect the experience of many others, often this is good, sometimes it's not. Too many times over the last few years we have had too many issues come up. Artists have complained that the experience at their art installations have been infringed upon, many people who have intentionally camped in the quieter parts of the city have been woken up in the early morning hours by rogue mutant vehicles blasting music, and there have even been reports of hearing damage from people who were just sitting on the playa and trapped in crowds at burns when a vehicle drove by or parked and blasted it's sound system at extreme levels.

We have also seen an increase in the number of Mutant Vehicles with sound systems of a size and power that would normally be designed for a stadium or arena. While the volume of these types of systems can be more easily assessed and appropriately placed when they are stationary in a Theme Camp, when they are on Mutant Vehicles they can be taken anywhere on the playa and pointed in any direction, making a cone of sound that may be heard by literally tens of thousands of people at a time. This creates a situation where one person or group is essentially forcing their music choice onto many others who may not want to hear it, are trying to enjoy other music, sleep, etc.

Somewhat surprisingly, the DMV has never had it's own policy that specifically applies to Mutant Vehicles, despite the fact that these vehicles carry some of the biggest sound systems on the playa. This lack of guidance no doubt helps allow the problems described above to exist, and persist. To help address this community problem, the DMV has developed a basic sound policy to help MV owners use their sound to the best benefit of the community. There will also be additional questions regarding sound upon registration of Mutant Vehicles.

A few things to consider:

Bigger is not necessarily better. A well engineered and well tuned sound system can create a high quality experience for those nearby without blasting out thousands of others further down playa. Do really need a sound system big enough to reach miles across the playa when the crowd in front of your vehicle only goes out a few hundred feet?

Remember not to play your sound system at higher levels while riding on city streets after midnight, or in a manner that dominates all other sound as you pass.

Keep in mind that if we continue to have the level of complaints and issues that we have been having for the past few years, we may have to take greater steps to limit large sound on vehicles. Please consider your impact on the community and help us all keep sound on MVs a positive experience.

The vehicle owner (registrant) is responsible for all aspects of the vehicle, including the use of sound systems. Rogue DJs are not an excuse for your vehicle getting complaints.

The Policy

Mutant vehicle sound systems can be classified into three levels.

Level 1: Normal car stereo / average living room (under 90 db at 30 ft)
Level 2: Dance Club or Theatre (90db and up at under 100ft)
Level 3: Large Dance Club, Arena, Stadium (100db or more at 100ft or more)

Note:
All db levels refer to maximum potential DBA.
The important thing here is the impact of the sound itself. The numbers (DB) are guidelines and the important thing is the impact your sound is having.

Vehicles with Level 1 systems may play anywhere playa, but must be mindful of your volume and surroundings, especially in quieter areas in the city or later at night.

Vehicles with Level 2 systems may only play at high volume on the open playa (not in or pointing right into the city streets) and must be mindful of where you are playing -- e.g. around art pieces, burns, etc. -- and turn it down when appropriate.

Vehicles with Level 3 systems may only play at high volume at 10:00 and 2:00 by the Large Scale Sound Camps, with speakers pointing out to the deep playa.

If you get more than two warnings about your sound system, you may lose your MV license and right to drive it for the rest of the event.

After learning to shun the corner sound camps in favor of the deep playa MV party while dancing under the stars, I'm very nervous about that vibe being able to survive after this. If you're telling me that Robot Heart in deep playa.. with it's speakers facing completely opposite of the city must now stick to the 10 and 2 where it's already a giant clusterfuck.. then.. well.. that blows to say the least.

Zee deep playa dirty deep dark music under zee stars is what I personally live for..

I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be looked over a tad.. and that this is more to protect the 'burbs that anything.

Well not ALL I live for. I do appreciate a decent mini-muffin from time to time and blowing peoples minds with full body LED light suits. That's always fun. Oh, and beef jerky. That's some delicious shit right there.

Actually, it was done as a request to give some breathing room to the large art pieces and the rest of the playa. A lot of the large art pieces were being used as very large party backdrops, sometimes with competing sound systems. A number of the artists complained they couldn't even work at their piece without having industrial cans on, and even then it made it really miserable.

As this policy is a response to a number of disparate group's requests over the last few years, I doubt it will be "looked over" at all.

Really, under 100db at 100ft to be in deep playa and not have to go to 2 or 10 O'Clock is very loud, I think both Dancetronauts and Space Cowboys are under 100db at 100ft.

dont forget there are over 700+ vehicles invited.... some may not be so popular as others (some might not get out as much as the others.. or have any 'good' music)

if memory serves me.. there was a bit of concern about this vehicle last year:

I dont recall anyone mentioning having a good time near THAT thing.. and it seems to only be memorable for how annoying it was..

along with years of complaints, in general (like the above mention of people using other peoples art as their dance party back drop) i think theyd like to discourage anything like what happened with that stick thing from happening again.... at least, it might happen.. but now theyll have a system in place, with a predetermined code to follow.. to be able to take action on the playa.

(i dont represent the DMV, this is just personal opinion and conjecture)

lemur wrote:I dont recall anyone mentioning having a good time near THAT thing.. and it seems to only be memorable for how annoying it was..

I'll freely give you that. That truck was a complete inconsiderate prick from my own personal experience.

I agree.......and, I did note several times last year, how a "big" sound MV, would pull up and drown out, a smaller one, playing different music. You could see the ass hats on the big one, laughing and pointing, dancing and such.
Sort of bullying, really.

I even had one, in the ashes of the man (same night) just push me (standing) right out of the way, because "we've got the tunes, and we wanna party here".

I've seen a lot of negativity, and elitism (admission), surrounding the big sound/dance MV's.....I have no sympathy for them.

zerzura wrote:Actually, it was done as a request to give some breathing room to the large art pieces and the rest of the playa. A lot of the large art pieces were being used as very large party backdrops, sometimes with competing sound systems. A number of the artists complained they couldn't even work at their piece without having industrial cans on, and even then it made it really miserable.

As this policy is a response to a number of disparate group's requests over the last few years, I doubt it will be "looked over" at all.

Uhhh yeah and who is going to enforce this? Give me a break... The Rangers are barely able to enforce the speed limit and safety violations, are they going to send divert an Intercept shift to outer playa every night just to make sure that some art structure isn't being harassed by a MV?

there are easily more than 100 people who are either directly involved in on-playa DMV volunteering, or off-playa DMV volunteering.. there are also hundreds of people who, while not volunteers, are just interested people (like fellows in the MV community, which is huge) ..also rangers.. on duty and off.... all of these people, and other citizens, have an interest in keeping the level of respect these mutant vehicles show for their fellow citizens high..

The MV Vehicle ID# can be jotted down easily.. and ya know, i think DMV will be pretty interested in knowing how these vehicles operate out there... especially this year, with a new policy

these same interested parties and volunteers also are citizens of BRC as well and may likely be interested in dancing along with everyone else.. and id imagine that you can be sure the playa art artists will be made aware of this policy

while it is true that they might not be able to do anything on the playa itself, because of the shear numbers/size/whatever reasons.. dont think that the eyewitness accounts, stories and vehicle numbers/descriptions are ignored by the DMV when they are passed on to them post event (or during it).. and people do pass these kinds of reports in..

mutant vehicles are the DMVs thing... they are interested in this.. if enough people report accurate and sensible accounts of abuses of sound, there will now be a set of guidelines that the DMV can use to hold the people accountable

they might not be able to hold them accountable on playa, for whatever/many reasons.. but i think that the info would probably be of interest to them when considering next years event

(this is all just my own personal opinion and conjecture based upon my reading of this announcement.. i have had no role in creating it.. or enforcing it.. in full disclosure I have volunteered off-playa for the DMV.. i am not a DMV representative, i dont speak for the DMV or their policies in any official capacity. my conjecture and opinion could be different from the way these policies are implemented and how they are perceived and intended by the DMV)

lemur wrote:I dont recall anyone mentioning having a good time near THAT thing.. and it seems to only be memorable for how annoying it was..

I'll freely give you that. That truck was a complete inconsiderate prick from my own personal experience.

I agree.......and, I did note several times last year, how a "big" sound MV, would pull up and drown out, a smaller one, playing different music. You could see the ass hats on the big one, laughing and pointing, dancing and such.
Sort of bullying, really.

I even had one, in the ashes of the man (same night) just push me (standing) right out of the way, because "we've got the tunes, and we wanna party here".

I've seen a lot of negativity, and elitism (admission), surrounding the big sound/dance MV's.....I have no sympathy for them.

That's verbatim what I witnessed with stick truck. Totally disgusting. I wanted to toss a match in their direction.

Honestly, my only concern is the Robot Heart parties. I've witnessed nothing but pure beauty, consideration and epic vibes from that crew. My heart would break if something happened to limit our times under the stars.